Bhagirathi Murulya becomes first Dalit woman to enter Assembly from coastal Karnataka

Bhagirathi Murulya celebrating her victory as MLA of Sullia constituency with BJP workers near the vote counting center at NIT-K Surathkal in Mangaluru on Saturday, May 13, 2023. | Photo Credit: H.S. MANJUNATH

The BJP candidate from Sullia Assembly constituency in Dakshina Kannada, Bhagirathi Murulya, who brought the seventh consecutive victory for her party in Sullia becomes the first Dalit woman from Coastal Karnataka to enter the Legislative Assembly.

Sullia was the only reserved constituency among 19 Assembly segments in coastal Karnataka. It was reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate.

Ms. Murulya, 48, defeated her nearest opponent from the Congress G. Krishnappa by a margin of 30,864 votes. She secured 93,902 (57.04%) votes while Mr. Krishnappa polled 63,038 (38.29%). Both the candidates were novices. Ms. Murulya was a former member of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchyat as well as Sullia Taluk Panchayat.

The BJP fielded Ms. Murulya after denying ticket to its six-time consecutive MLA S. Angara, who was also the Minister for Fisheries, Ports and Inland Water Transport, reportedly due to anti-incumbency factors. The disgruntlement among the rank and file of the BJP had eased after it replaced Mr. Angara with a woman candidate.

By winning the seat for the seventh consecutive time since 1994 elections, the BJP continued to prove that Sullia is its citadel. Earlier, the party had won the seat once in 1983 elections when it opened its account. Thus it has won the seat for eight times. The party retained this seat in the 2013 elections, when its all other candidates lost in seven other constituencies in the district. The party fielded a woman candidate from Sullia for the first time. The first-ever woman candidate to enter the fray in this constituency was in 2013, when the now defunct Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) issued its ticket to a woman who lost the elections.

The Congress did face trouble from a segment of its workers after it chose G. Krishnappa as its candidate. Supporters of H.M. Nandakumar, a ticket aspirant, held three public meetings in the constituency and staged a protest in front of the party office in Mangaluru seeking a replacement of Mr. Krishnappa with Mr. Nandakumar. Their pressure tactics did not yield any result. Though the supporters threatened to field Mr. Nandakumar as an Independent, finally they backtracked and fell in line with the party.

AAP had fielded Sumana Bellarkar as its candidate. She was a MBA graduate and the daughter of two-time (1985, 1989) Congress MLA from the constituency K. Kushala. She secured 1,586 votes. There were eight candidates, who were all novices, in the fray.

Sullia became an Independent constituency from the 1962 Assembly elections. Then it was reserved for a candidate of the Scheduled Tribes. It was reserved for a candidate of the Scheduled Castes from 1967 onwards. Since then it has remained so though, demands have been made for de-reservation. 

Speaking to The Hindu after her victory Ms. Murulya attributed the win to the efforts put in by the party workers. She said that she secured more votes than Mr. Angara. The winning margin of Mr. Angara in 2018 election was at 26,068 votes. 

Mr. Angara had secured 95,205 votes against the Congress candidate of B. Raghu who had secured 69,137 votes.